Independence Day: The Drama of Bush and Libby

Published: July 4, 2007

As a social studies teacher in the Bronx, I have always taught my students that the American system of justice is based on the ideal that the law is supposed to treat all Americans the same.

This is what happened when the vice-presidential aide I. Lewis Libby Jr. was convicted by a jury of his peers, yet Mr. Libby's sentence was commuted simply because he was politically connected to President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.

Mr. Libby may have won a commutation, and the radical right may have won a sense of vindication, but the biggest loser in this case is the American concept of equal justice under law. Richard Kavesh

Nyack, N.Y., July 3, 2007

To the Editor:

On Monday afternoon, my wife and I went to Philadelphia to visit Independence Hall and learn more about the notable events surrounding the founding of our country. On Monday night, I returned home to learn that the president had commuted the sentence of I. Lewis Libby Jr., a convicted criminal.

To see how far this presidency has fallen from the Tree of Liberty planted in 1776 is truly shameful and troubling. George Alexander

Princeton, N.J., July 3, 2007

To the Editor:

President Bush has burst his own presidential bubble.

Unlike the actors at the last performance of a short-lived flop, Mr. Bush has decided well before the last performance to burst the bubble and give up any pretense of being able to lead any except his core supporters (and where he might lead them is certainly unclear).

In bursting his own bubble with the Libby commutation, Mr. Bush has declared his own Independence Day: he will do what he wants, not what the country expects from its leader.

As a left-leaning individual and a solid Democrat, I am somewhat upset by President Bush's decision to commute I. Lewis Libby Jr.'s prison sentence, but I am not outraged as many nationally prominent Democrats are by this decision. I think that Mr. Libby was essentially a ''fall guy'' for higher-ups like Karl Rove and Vice President Dick Cheney.

It is important to remember that Mr. Libby will remain a convicted felon, will have to serve probation, pay a hefty fine and will probably never be able to practice law again, so he certainly isn't getting away without punishment. A true injustice would be committed if, on his way out of office, President Bush were to pardon Mr. Libby. Carolyn Conley

Berwyn, Pa., July 3, 2007

To the Editor:

When George W. Bush was governor of Texas, he presided over more than 150 executions. In more than one-third of the cases -- 57 in all -- lawyers representing condemned inmates asked then-Governor Bush for a commutation of sentence, so that the inmates would serve life in prison rather than face execution.

Some of these inmates had been represented by lawyers who slept during trials. Some were mentally retarded. Some were juveniles at the time they committed the crime for which they were sentenced to death.

In all these cases, Governor Bush refused to commute their sentences, saying that the inmates had had full access to the judicial system.

I. Lewis Libby Jr. had the best lawyers money can buy. His crime cannot be attributed to youth or retardation. He has expressed no remorse whatsoever for lying to a grand jury or participating in the administration's effort to mislead the American people about the war in Iraq. President Bush's commutation of Mr. Libby's sentence is certainly legal, but it just as surely offends the fundamental constitutional value of equality.

Because President Bush signed a commutation, a rich and powerful man will spend not a day in prison, while 57 poor and poorly connected human beings died because Governor Bush refused to lift a pen for them.

David R. Dow

Houston, July 3, 2007

The writer is a professor at the University of Houston Law Center who represents death row inmates, including several who sought commutation from then-Governor Bush.

To the Editor:

Re ''Soft on Crime'' (editorial, July 3):

When will this country -- which still holds the potential for great things -- again have a president worthy of the position? Capable of uniting us, rather than dividing us? Capable of inspiring the best in us, rather than demonstrating the worst in us?

John Glicksman

McMurray, Pa., July 3, 2007

To the Editor:

I believe that I. Lewis Libby Jr. was guilty and that his sentence was just, but I support President Bush's decision to commute that sentence. The trial of Scooter Libby exposed the administration's aggressive and underhanded campaign to discredit Joseph C. Wilson IV for his courage in exposing its lies about the intelligence on Iraq.

Scooter Libby did commit perjury about how Valerie Wilson's name was leaked to the media. But he did not do so alone, or without orders.

Whether Mr. Libby spends time in jail or not, the public now knows the truth about what this administration has done. For President Bush to have allowed Mr. Libby to be the scapegoat for his administration's wrongdoing would have been dishonorable in the extreme.

At least Mr. Bush had the moral courage to let the fall guy off the hook and take the heat for doing so.